Web of Silence: A Ray Schiller Novel (The Ray Schiller Series Book 4)

by Marjorie Doering

  He opened Waverly’s phone.

  38

  Ray took the stairs two at a time to the second floor. When a quick look failed to locate Waverly, he turned to Detective Burke. “Where’s Dick?”

  “The washroom, I guess.” Burke looked him over. “You okay, Schiller? You’re breathing like a racehorse.”

  “I’m fine.”

  With a laser beam focus on his destination, he made no eye contact with anyone along the way. He gave the restroom door a hard shove. The stall doors all stood open and Ray saw Waverly hunched over a sink, washing his hands, his back turned to him.

  Ray stepped up close, his voice like the rumbling warning of a dog’s low growl. He spoke slowly, distinctly, without preamble. “Are you sleeping with my wife?”

  Waverly’s eyes flicked up to the mirror over the sink—his only movement. “What?” The single word hung in the air—not a question, but an expression of disbelief.

  “You heard me,” Ray said. “Are you sleeping with Gail?”

  Slowly, steadily, Waverly’s back straightened, seeming to broaden as he drew his shoulders back. With the kind of speed and power Ray hadn’t expected of him, Waverly spun, his fist connecting with Ray’s jaw with a sound like a hammer hitting its mark.

  Ray careened backward, the force and unexpectedness of the blow knocking him down, sending him sliding a foot across the tile floor.

  Waverly stood there rubbing his knuckles, glaring at him. “What the hell kind of question was that?” He watched Ray get up on one knee and test his jaw by moving it from side to side. “Asking me a thing like that just raised ‘assery’ to a whole new level.”

  Not the behavior Ray would’ve expected from a guilty party, Waverly’s reaction left him confused, but no less angry. Dazed, he got on his feet. “What’s Gail’s cell phone number doing in your list of contacts?” Ray pitched the cell phone at him, hitting him in the chest.

  Waverly caught it before it fell to the floor. “What are you doing sticking your nose in my personal information?”

  “I’ll answer that when you tell me what a Men’s Wearhouse receipt for your suits and shirts was doing in Gail’s SUV.”

  Waverly turned pale. He grabbed a paper towel, dried his hands and tossed the damp paper into the yawning mouth of a nearby trashcan. “Go home, Ray.” He started toward the restroom door. “Ask Gail.”

  Ray blocked his path. “We’re not done here, Dick.”

  “Yeah, we are.”

  “Tell me what the hell is going on,” Ray demanded.

  “I’m not talking about this. You go home. Ask your wife.”

  Ray stood his ground.

  Waverly took a long, deep breath. “Ray, don’t make me hit you again. Get out the hell outta my way.”

  The threat had no bearing on Ray stepping aside, but clearly, Waverly was done talking and no force on earth was about to change his mind. Waverly walked out without another word.

  Before leaving the men’s room, Ray splashed water on his face, trying to clear his head. The eyes of a half dozen trained observers followed him as he made his way to the exit door of the department just as they had followed Waverly a minute earlier.

  Spangler, a self-proclaimed joker, snickered and motioned at the discoloration spreading at the corner of Ray’s mouth. “Hey, Schiller! If you want, I can get you and Waverly the name of a good couples’ counselor.”

  Ray gave him a death stare, but kept moving.

  The seventeen-mile drive home played havoc on Ray. When he arrived, he tried to leave his anger outside, but it rode in on him like a saddle on an unbroken horse.

  “Gail!”

  “Daddy.” Joey ran to him and hugged Ray’s thigh.

  “Hi, champ. Where’s Mommy?”

  Joey pointed up the stairs, then crooked his finger at Ray, prompting him to bend closer. “You got an owee, Daddy?”

  “It’s okay, Joey. It’s not bad.”

  Joey stretched up on the balls of his feet, wrapped his arms around Ray’s neck, kissing his bruised jaw. “All better?”

  Ray kissed the top of his head. “All better. Thank you.”

  “Hi, Dad,” Krista said.

  “How are you, honey?” Anxious to spare his children the scene that was likely to play out, Ray needed to clear the ‘arena.’ “Where’s your sister?”

  “At Allegra’s, I think. Why?”

  “Just doing a headcount. How about doing your old man a favor? Take your brother upstairs and keep him entertained for a while, okay? When you get up there, ask your mom to come down. I’d like to talk with her privately for a minute.”

  “Sure, Dad.” She looked more closely at him and narrowed her eyes. “What happened to you?”

  He pointed to his swollen jaw and faked a smile. “This you mean? It’s nothing. I slipped on some water in the men’s room and hit a sink with my face.” The white lie left a dark taste in his mouth.

  “I hope it was water,” Krista said. She took Joey by the hand and started up the stairs, looking back skeptically.

  “Go ahead, sweetheart. Get your mom for me. I’ll call you back down in a little while, all right?”

  Seconds later, Gail appeared at the top of the landing and smiled down at him. “Home early again, honey? I really like this trend.” She did a lighthearted skip down the last two stairs and hurried to him. Gail gasped as she got a better look at him and reached out to touch his face.

  “Ray, what happened?”

  He caught her arm by the wrist.

  Her eyes widened. “Honey, what’s going on?”

  “Funny,” he said. “I asked Dick the same thing half an hour ago.”

  “What are you talking about?” A look of shock came over her face as her eyes shifted to his jaw again and the realization hit. “Dick did that, Ray?”

  “Kind of ironic when it should’ve been the other way around, don’t you think?” He released her, shoving her hand aside. “I must be some kind of idiot. The times he’s left work early and you were gone when I got home… Your defensiveness about where you’ve been… I saw the signs, but you and Dick? I can’t believe this.”

  “What? Ray, you can’t actually think Dick and I—”

  “Can’t I?” He looked at her, his eyes filled with anger and pain. “You’ve been lying to me.”

  “Ray, I—”

  “You were never at Julie’s Monday night.”

  “Ray, listen to me.”

  “So you can do what—lie to me again and tell me I’m wrong? You were shopping that night, all right, but not for sweaters and not at Eddie Bauer’s.” He pulled out the Men’s Wearhouse receipt and held it up in front of her face. “These suits and shirts sure aren’t hanging up in my closet. Since when did you and Dick start going clothes shopping together?”

  “Ray, if you’ll just let me explain—”

  He couldn’t stop. He was on a roll and gathering steam. “In a million years, no one could’ve convinced me that you and Dick… My God. Dick starts dropping weight so fast I can practically see it falling off him, then you tell me how you prefer your men slim and clean shaven. The next thing I know, he walks in and his mustache is gone.” His false laughter rang through the living room. ”Just give me a white cane. I’m not only stupid, I must be blind.”

  “Ray, stop it.”

  “I was worried about both of you. I knew something was wrong, but I couldn’t let myself believe you and he would ever do something like that to me.” He paced, trying to keep himself together. “How many times did you lie to me about where you were so you could be with him? I trusted you, Gail. With everything in me, I trusted you—you and Dick. You can’t know… you have no idea the kind of hell you put me through four years ago. I can’t go through that again. I won’t.”

  “Ray, stop! You don’t have to go through that again—not now or ever. You’re right. I have been lying to you and I’m sorry, but it’s not what you think. I swear it’s not.”

  He turned to leave—the room, the house
? He didn’t know.

  “Ray Carl Schiller, you listen to me.” She grabbed him by the arm, but he kept walking. Knowing she couldn’t prevent it, Gail let go.

  At the door, Ray turned around where he stood. “Dick wouldn’t talk to me about what’s going on. He told me to take it up with you. Nice, huh… leaving you in the lurch?”

  “There’s a good reason for that, Ray. Do you want to hear it or don’t you?”

  Slowly, he moved closer. “I want to know exactly what’s been going on.”

  “I’ll tell you if you just give me half a chance.”

  “I’m listening. Go ahead.”

  Gail had visible trouble swallowing before she began. “You can believe this or not, but I was going to tell you anyway. I’ve wanted to for so long, but I made a promise. No promise is worth putting us through this, though. If I’d had any idea you thought that I—”

  “What promise?”

  Gail closed her eyes and a tear slipped from between her lids. “It’s Phyllis, Ray.”

  “What about her?” He sensed that whatever good might come out of their conversation, Gail might be about to fill the void with something worse.

  “Ray, Phyllis was diagnosed with cancer a few months ago.”

  His heart dropped to his stomach. “Oh, God, no. Why didn’t Dick tell me?”

  “She wouldn’t let him. Phyllis swore him to secrecy.”

  He moved still closer. “Why in God’s name did she do that?”

  “You know Phyllis,” Gail said. “Outside of you, she’s the most fiercely independent person I know. Tough. Strong-willed. She doesn’t want anyone to know about it.”

  “So, how did you find out?”

  Gail gave a little shrug. “You were so worried about Dick, it practically came up on a daily basis. I thought if I could find out what the problem was, I might able to put your mind at ease—mine, too. Three weeks ago, I went to talk to her to see if I could find out what was going on with Dick.”

  “That’s when she told you?”

  “She didn’t have to, Ray.” Tears filled her eyes. “If Phyllis hadn’t realized I’d seen her through the window, I don’t think she would’ve let me in. Just from the glimpse I got of her from outside, I knew something was horribly wrong. Her hair had gotten so fine and thin, her scalp showed through her hair. And, as tiny as she’s always been… Ray, there’s practically nothing left of her anymore.” Tears trickled over her lower lids and down her face.

  Ray stepped up and wrapped Gail in his arms. When he let go, he asked, “What about the prognosis?”

  Gail sat down on the edge of the loveseat. “Phyllis wouldn’t say. I couldn’t even get her to tell me what kind of cancer she’s dealing with. Before I left, she swore me to silence… just like Dick. Up until now, there were only three of us who knew about it: Dick, their daughter, and me. Barbara flew in from Arizona on Tuesday.”

  Barbara! Waverly’s suspicious phone call played over again in Ray’s head: ‘I can’t wait to see you again either. I love you, too.’ “Yeah,” Ray said, “I heard Dick talking to her on the phone.”

  “You know how Phyllis has always been after Dick to lose weight. He’s doing it now, not for himself but for her… to make her happy.”

  They sat down beside each other on the couch.

  “I thought Phyllis might’ve wanted him to shave his mustache, but when I asked, he said no. Where’d that come from?”

  Despite her tears, Gail couldn’t help but smile. “Ah, the mustache. Poor Dick. He wanted to show support like other people sometimes do. He was going to shave off that wonderful head of hair of his, but Phyllis wouldn’t hear of it, so without telling her, he shaved his mustache off instead.”

  Ray smiled. “Oh, geeze. That’s Dick for you. How do the clothes from Men’s Wearhouse fit into all this?”

  “The night I said I was going to Julie’s, Phyllis had called saying Dick was headed there right after supper to get a couple new suits. She told me when it comes to clothes he has all the taste of a week-old, flour tortilla. She asked if I could accidentally run into him there and steer him in the right direction. Honey, I hated lying to you and I never meant to put Julie on the spot, but coming up with an excuse for leaving that night wasn’t easy. I told you the only thing I could think of at the last minute.”

  “So, how did his Men’s Wearhouse bag wind up in the back of your car?”

  “Oh, that,” she said. “I dropped in on Phyllis the next day to see if there was anything else I could do. It turned out that one of the new suits was practically identical to one Dick already has. Phyllis felt awful about it, but she asked if I could exchange it for a different one.”

  “So,” Ray said, “you put it in the SUV, thinking I wouldn’t see it. When you found out I had, you came up with another story.”

  “Yes… about returning a bomber jacket. I’m really sorry, honey.”

  “You know, if you hadn’t left Dick’s receipt in your car, you might’ve gotten away with it.”

  Gail sighed. “When I went to make the exchange, I thought Phyllis forgot to put the receipt back in the bag. It turned out that I didn’t need it, though. Dick is a ‘Perfect Fit’ member—whatever that is—so they had his transaction number on file. If it hadn’t been for that, I’d have had to find it. But I’m so glad you know now, Ray.”

  Gail wrapped her arms around one of his. “I never should have promised to keep it from you in the first place. If I’d had any idea what you were thinking, I’d have told you in a heartbeat. Phyllis wouldn’t have blamed me.”

  Ray hung his head as anguish over Dick and Phyllis’s situation overshadowed his relief. “Dick’s going through hell, and I just added to it by accusing him of sleeping with you. On top of that, I’ve been waving food under his nose, kidding him about his mustache… Some friend that makes me.”

  Gail put her hand on his forearm. “Hon, you didn’t know. Keeping this from you has been killing me. Even if Dick won’t break his promise to Phyllis, I’m glad he allowed me to break mine. But with or without his permission, I about to tell you anyway. I just couldn’t keep it from you anymore. I’m so sorry, Ray. I—”

  He stopped her with a kiss. “It’s okay. But I want your word you’ll never keep anything from me again. No secrets ever—”

  Gail stopped him with a kiss of her own. “You have my promise, Ray. It will never happen again, I swear it.”

  “Are you guys done fighting yet?”

  Ray got up and saw Krista at the top of the stairs. “Who said we were fighting?”

  “I just figured.”

  “You can bring it down now,” Gail told her.

  “Bring what down?” Ray asked.

  “You’ll see.”

  Seconds later, Krista followed Joey as he dragged a package down the steps behind him, giggling.

  Ray went to help. “What have you got there, big guy?”

  “For you, Daddy.”

  Gail smiled. “I was going to wrap it for you, hon, but—”

  He opened the bag. “A bomber jacket!”

  “Happy ‘re-anniversary,’ Ray.”

  He slipped it on. “It’s great, babe. I love it.” He wrapped her in a hug, then slipped out of the jacket and set it in her arms. “Hon, excuse me for a minute, okay? There’s something I’ve got to do.”

  “You’re calling Dick?”

  “Absolutely.”

  39

  The next morning Ray sat in an easy chair, wearing jeans and an old sweatshirt Gail had been trying to talk him into throwing away for the past two years. Under his supervision, Joey sat in the middle of the living floor, turning his fleet of toy trucks into a convoy. Ray drained his coffee mug as Gail came and sat beside him on the arm of his chair.

  “That’s your third cup, hon, and you still look exhausted.”

  “The fourth,” he said, “but who’s counting? I slept like the dead the first two… maybe three hours last night. Then I woke up and couldn’t get Dick and Phyllis out o
f my head. I never fell asleep again.”

  Gail ran a hand over his back. “I know; I wasn’t sleeping either. You were tossing around like water on a hot griddle.”

  “Sorry, babe.”

  “It wasn’t your fault. I was thinking about them, too.”

  Ray patted her thigh. “I wish there was something we could do.”

  “It breaks my heart, but about all we can do is help out where we can when we can, brace for the worst, and pray for the best.” Fighting tears, Gail joined Joey on the floor.

  In control of herself again, she turned back to Ray a moment later, smiling. “Judging by your favorite day-off attire, you’re not planning to set foot outside the house today.”

  He smiled back at her. “You lay off my sweatshirt, and I won’t say anything about your yoga pants.”

  “Fair enough,” she said. “So, have you got plans for around here today?”

  “If the caffeine ever kicks in, I was thinking about straightening out the garage—finding a better spot for the grill and the summer furniture.”

  “Great,” she said, laughing. “Pulling the SUV into the garage has become a challenge.”

  “I’ll get it organized.”

  On the end table beside him, his cell phone rang. “Schiller,” Ray said, putting the phone to his ear. He listened intently without saying a word and slid to the edge of his chair.

  “Well,” Gail said resignedly, “it was a nice having you here while it lasted. Your blue suit is in the dry cleaner’s bag on the left side of the closet, honey.”

  Ray shushed her by holding the palm of his hand in her direction. “What was that again?” he said into the phone. “Yeah, okay, I got it. Have you notified Detective Waverly yet? Okay, I’ll contact him myself. We’ll be there ASAP. Yeah, thanks.”

  “Sorry, Gail,” he said, “this can’t wait. I’ve got to call Dick.”

  “‘Unca’ Dick?” Joey said, looking up from his trucks.